Ten Tips for My Younger Self

20:55

I think we all have things that we wish we had done better in the
past, or dealt with in a different way, and with such a big change in my
life coming up in the next few months, I have found myself quietly
reflecting on my life so far.

As a result I thought I would put
together a list of ten different tips that I would give my younger self
if I had the chance for you all to see. Hopefully some of them will also
ring true to you (and it won't just be me who was in this situation!).

1.
There is a reason that some people end up falling asleep mid sentence,
in the back of the car or at 7 o'clock at night. It's called working
life. Soon you will become like them and will usually be found fast
asleep on the sofa by 10pm at the latest.

2. You
know that red hair that you love so much at the moment? Enjoy it whilst
it lasts, it will cause you SO much grief when you try to get it back to
blonde in a few years time.

3. Stick at the
learning to drive before you go to university. You will not have another
chance until you finish university and it will put you off wanting to
learn altogether. It's much easier just to do it now and get it over
with!

4. Go out and enjoy life. Don't hold
yourself back for a boy, or because you are afraid you may do something
wrong. This will stop you from experiencing so many things in life and
you will ultimately struggle to get past that when you are older.

5.
Don't buy cats until you have settled down properly. It is not fair to
expect them to move around with you. You will end up having to give them
away and be scared of getting anymore in the fear of the same thing
happening again.

6. Don't want kids now? Think
you could never ever possibly want children and that you'd much rather
stick with your cats? Wait until you are 23 and the broodiness kicks
in... then that will change. Oh yes, it will change.

7.
Keep in touch with old friends. It is so easy to let people slip away
as you move on with your individual lives but you will miss them when
you look back at the good times you had and it's not always that easy to
strike up a conversation with someone you haven't spoken to in five
years.

8. Appreciate what you have - particularly
your job. Your first job will be one that you love. Ignore that
niggling feeling that you could be getting more money - being happy in
your job but not being paid much is much better than being unhappy and
well paid. That, and you don't really know how lucky you are until you
jump from the pan and into the fire.

9. Spend
quality time with each of your family members and make the effort to see
them on a regular basis. They are your family, your support network and
they love you - show them how much they mean to you and give a little
back.

10. Believe it or not, you will get sick of
changing phones every three months. Eventually you will just want to
stick to the same phone for several years (though I'm not sure I've hit
that point even now!). and other things will soon become the priority,
so stop wasting your money!

So there you have my ten tips that I
would give my younger self if I had the chance to (whether I listened or
not would be a different matter!).

Do you have any tips that you
would give your younger self? If so, please leave them in the comments
below - I would love to hear them!